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>> this is "bbc world news america," reporting from washington. put down your weapons -- the hopeful plea of the british prime minister to the taliban. is there any chance they will listen? a long march across africa for these somali refugees. they are driven to desperation. >> we have to scale up operations to meet the growing need. >> constantly connected -- is social media leaving all of us overwhelmed? welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and also around the globe. stop fighting, stop bombing,

join the political process -- that is what british prime minister david cameron asked a taliban today. even as he spoke those words, four nato soldiers were killed in the eastern part of the country, which begs the question, what happens when foreign forces withdraw? the bbc reports. >> british troops in the helmand -- in helmand, dropping into an area the taliban previously controlled. the taliban wisely weren't there to meet them. so far, the british soldiers have not met any opposition. usually, the insurgency retreats, but not always. the villagers hope things will improve without the insurgents around. the taliban steal our food, he says.

i am very poor, but if i protest, they say, you support nato. nato is successfully pushing the taliban out of places like this. in helmand, that's because 10,000 british troops were reinforced by 20,000 americans. that deployment has now peaked. david cameron said in kabul that progress was good enough to withdraw more british troops. they will make an announcement tomorrow. it will probably be just a few hundred soldiers. by 2015, there will be no british combat forces here at all. >> i think the british people deserve a deadline. we have been in helmand province since 2006, in afghanistan since early 2001. i believe the afghan government, the afghan people, the afghan army deserve to have a deadline so they can plan properly towards a transition. >> so, it is over to the afghan forces. in the village, the police seem

willing to help themselves to food, just like the taliban. we did find the taliban ammunitions-in a melon patch -- ammunition stash in a melon patch. the soldiers have not gone away. they were sniping on a mission that we joined. there is still a big problem with corruption. the question now, will the afghans be able to do the job the british soldiers have been doing as they start to leave? >> for more on these challenges and calls for an even quicker drawdown of u.s. troops, i spoke earlier with a former adviser to the u.s. military in afghanistan. so, seth, have david cameron asking the taliban to stop fighting, put down their

weapons, join the political process. what do you think the chances are that might happen? >> there are elements of the taliban and other insurgent groups that are willing to talk about this option. they have been fighting for three decades in afghanistan. people are tired. i think right now what we're seeing is some elements willing, some elements unwilling. based on the fact that many of them believe they are winning right now, that the u.s. and other allies are leaving, i think it is unlikely that they will cut a deal now. not wait it out -- why not wait it out? >> to what extent is the taliban looking at things like this letter-signing, seeing the political will disappearing, and thinking, why should we negotiate? why not sit things out? >> this to the conflict within the u.s. -- and they see the

political conflict within the u.s. they say that we should be committed to this fight. rc not a robust discussion. the fact that we have a range -- they are seeing a robust discussion. the fact that we have arranged -- we have someone making a case for getting a completely by 2012, if not sooner. that is certainly seen as a victory by the taliban. >> you know the discussions the taliban are having. what is the best way to join more of them to join the political process within the timeframe that nato forces will remain? how do we pull more of them into the political process? >> i think their are two ways. one is to defeat them on the battlefield. in areas where nato and afghan forces are fighting them, including local forces, did defeat them on the battlefield. we have seen them willing to -- to defeat them on the

battlefield. we have seen them willing to reintegrate in those areas. secondly, more broadly, put more pressure on pakistan, the biggest outside government supporter of the taliban. if they were to suddenly decide they wanted to cut a deal, that would put pressure on the taliban. unfortunately, we are not seeing across-the-board big three in all locations, nor we seeing pakistan put pressure on them -- a cross-led dashboard victory -- across-the-board- victory in all locations, nor are we seeing pakistan put pressure on them. we're seeing the taliban lose ground in the south. i suspect part of that is contesting areas that the taliban does -- >> thank you for coming in. the worst drought in decades is forcing thousands of families in east africa to walk for days to

find refugee camps. the un says some very young children are dying before they ever get there. rain fell for the past three seasons. people are facing dire shortages of food, shelter, and health services. we are in a kenyan refugee camp, the largest of its kind in this world, for this story. >> day after day, mile after mile, they walked and walked. these are the people of the drought. they are escaping from somalia and the civil war. they track vast distances across land where it is no longer -- where it no longer seems to rain. some are sick, like this six- month-old. some will die along the way. these people are from the same village in somalia. what they carry is all they possess. >> the journey was too long.

we have no food. we are carrying children on our back. no water. threats from wild animals. all kinds of suffering. >> this group of villagers have been walking for five days now to get here. others have traveled for far longer than that, sometimes several weeks. all of them are looking for the same things -- food, water, and medical supplies -- and pleading for help from the international community. when they arrive at the refugee camp, they are desperate. this place has been overwhelmed. aid workers are struggling to cope. the u.n. gives basic rations to everyone who comes here, but some refugees complain that they can wait for days or even weeks without getting any proper food supplies. >> unless we can get humanitarian aid into this part of the world, unless we can scale up our operations to meet the growing need, this crisis

could turn into a catastrophe. that is what we have to stop. >> the most vulnerable of this camp are the monetarist -- malnourished children who have just arrived. often, they die within a day or so of getting here. the graveyards are filling up fast. it is mainly children and babies buried here. families who come in search of food and water have found that instead. -- death instead. >> hard braking scenes from east africa. in other news from around the world -- heartbreaking scenes from east africa. in other news from a round the world, casey anthony was cleared of first-degree murder. her daughter went missing in june, 2008, and was found dead three months later. the medical examiner was not able to determine how the child died.

syrian forces have shot and killed at least six anti- government protesters in hamas. this comes on the second consecutive day of clashes there. authorities and are attempting to reassert control. the european union has banned the import of certain seeds and beans from egypt. a single batch of fenugreek seeds from a dip was a likely source of two deadly outbreaks -- from egypt was the likely source of two deadly outbreaks of e. coli. it is day one for the new managing director of the imf, christine lagarde, who became the first woman to hold the position. moody's cut portugal's credit rating by four notches. here to discuss the new leader's to do list is an economist.

she does like a challenge. it does not look like she will have any quiet moments. >> there are quite a few things on her written that. she has to bring up the reputation and the stature of the imf. even though the sexual assault charges of dominique strauss- kahn -- against her predecessor, dominique strauss- kahn, looks likely to be dismissed -- it was not terribly flattering for the organization. there is a need to restore the representation -- reputation of the organization. >> are there any tools in the box of the imf that she can use, that have not been used yet, to change things? >> how long will the imf and european union insist on this issue that greece shall not be allowed to default? it is increasingly obvious to the private sector that greece is bust.

christine lagarde was one of the most inflexible and stalwart defenders of this policy. i think there will come a time when that task to change. she will have to find a way to repudiate her previous dispute. these things can be papered over. politicians are expert at finding ways to say that what they are saying is consistent with the opposite and i said before. >> let's look at america. it is not just europe that is facing problems. while it is fashionable to say that the two economic systems are very different, actually, the crisis and the problems they are facing are remarkably similar. but it certainly looks that way if you look at the images on the television -- >> it certainly looks that way if you look at the images on the television. america is not a bust. if they have the will to do so, there would be no problem finding the debt -- funding the

debt. we have seen some interesting signs. the senate canceled its july 4 recess to work on this problem. obama has said, i wanted a deal by july 22. that is three weeks from now. you are seeing flexibility on the part of republicans, leaving the door open to so-called revenue raisers. we saw that from john mccain, for example. >> what are the market's doing on this possible discussion -- markets doing on this possible discussion? another risk is still there. the best bet -- >> the risk is still there. the politicians cannot deal with that kind of risk. they may come up with the deal at the last minute or a deal to give themselves more time. >> you are watching "bbc world news america."

a british tabloid becomes the story after allegations that "news of the world" hacked into the phone of a murdered schoolgirl spark a furor. they upheld the decision funding the netherlands responsible for the deaths of three muslim men during the bosnian war. we have the rest of that story. >> srebrenica, july, 1995 -- a so-called u.n. safe area overrun by bosnian-serb forces led by ratko mladic. they thought they had a production of -- said they had the protection of -- they thought they had the protection of the un forces. they were wrong.

a court in the netherlands found that the dutch netherlands bear some responsibility. good judge said that they believed the state had acted illegally -- the judge said that they believed the state had acted illegally toward three men. they will have to pay reparations. it has been a long ordeal. i am asking for the killers of my family, the serbs -- one of them even works in the same building i work in -- can you imagine that? he is still there. it is just one case that i have been dealing with for the last 10 years. >> the families had filed a lawsuit because the three bosnian men who were killed had been watching for the dutch-u.n. peacekeepers. the outcome of the case surprised even the lawyers. 16 years after the massacre at srebrenica, the court ruling

about the three men who were turned over to the serbs could have implications for similar cases against the dutch state. >> for years, the "news of the world," britain's top-selling sunday tabloid and part of rupert murdoch's global media empire, has been afflicted by claims of phone hacking. david cameron expressed his shock that the phone of a girl who was murdered years ago was hacked into by a "news of the world" correspondent. >> the scandal has been growing and growing as more and more people learned that their phones had been hacked.

now, a much more serious allegation has shocked the country. 13-year-old 2 went missing -- 13-year-old milly dowler went missing. there were allegations that "news of the world" packed into her phone and that some messages might have been deleted in that act. >> if these allegations are true, this is a dreadful act, a dreadful situation. what i have read in the papers is quite shocking -- that someone could do this -- while knowing that the police were trying to find this person and find out what had happened. >> there is more pressure on the prime minister's friend, rebekah brooks, chief executive of news international in the u.k., editor at "news of the world" when milly dowler went missing.

she has always said she did not know about the actions of a few rogue reporters. she says she is shocked as everyone else. everyone makes it plain that she does not intend to resign. >> this happened in 2002. she is now chief executive of the company. she is absolutely determined to get to the bottom of this issue. >> the heat has been turned up on rupert murdoch's news empire. the house of commons will debate the latest allegations on wednesday. opposition politicians say they want an inquiry set up. they also say that rebekah brooks should go. >> this was a systematic series of things that happened. what i want from executives at news international is for them to start taking responsibility. but it is not just news international -- >> it is not

just news international with difficult questions to answer. the latest claims are prompting more uncomfortable questions about whether a blind eye was turnedat scotland yard -- turned at scotland yard. >> for more on the uproar and the culture surrounding the british tabloids, i am joined by a reporter from london. thank you for joining me. coming from this side of the atlantic, is this a uniquely british phenomenon? >> i think there is a different newspaper culture. the national enquirer in america is about as close as you will get to some of the tabloid tone that we have in our best-selling newspaper. if you imagine "the national enquirer" was the best-selling newspaper in america, you would

understand the situation here. >> they come up with stories that sailed very close to the legal edge. >> they have a culture that says get results whatever the cost. in a situation where circulation is falling and there is a battle for readers, that pushes people ever closer to the legal line and the moral line -- the at the line of journalism, as we have seen with these latest "news of the world" allegations. hacking into the phone of a child murder victim. i do not think many people would be shocked, because it is a very immoral culture. we just need to get the story. we do not care how we get it. it is not a reporters' fault -- the reporters' fault.

if they do not get results, they are out the door. >> to some extent, the public in britain has become very upset about this story. aren't readers somewhat implicit in this? when it comes to tittle-tattle about celebrities, they are quite happy to have their phones hacked into? >> at the end of the day, people buy these papers. the desire for gossip about celebrities is growing every year. as a newspaper owner, you can understand, to a degree, why they feel more and more of the paper with that. the problem is that it undermines real issues and democracy, because they get pushed out -- real stories about what is happening in governments and local politics get pushed out to make room for what kim hart-ian -- kim kardashian is

wearing on her feet. >> will the police step in now that this has come to light? >> i think so. a lot of focus has been on the police. [no audio] they live near each other. they have lunch together. given the current climate and the current allegations floating about, david cameron would do very well to distance himself. >> thank you so much for joining us for that. now to the technology which has forever changed our lives, from textiles to social media, we are all connected in more ways than -- texting to social media, we are all connected in more ways than before. in a somewhat surprising finding, children still prefer

to communicate face-to-face. >> i went to meet joe and his daughters. they have been part of a study following how many hours they are checking e-mails, spending on line. -- online. >> i would sit at least 10 hours. -- say at least 10 hours. it's a lot. >> too many? >> i would say so. every now and then, i go through phases of trying to cut down. >> how many hours per day? >> [inaudible] >> how many? >> 18. yeah. yeah. faulthe blackberry's

though. >> do you feel bad? >> you made me feel bad thinking about it appears it is scary. >> it seems their habits are not so unusual. research clinic at around half of us are online for four hours -- research claims that around half of us are online for more than four hours per day. 36% of us feel family life has been disrupted by all of this. this is far from being just an issue about teenagers. >> if mom or dad are at breakfast on the iphone, checking e-mail, the kids will get a message that it is acceptable. >> one final question. have you ever gone a week without any online contact? >> no. >> so, while 1 in 6 of us have

never been on line, for jessica, the idea of one-day offline is science fiction. >> oh, dear. all too familiar. for some of us, packing a suitcase is tough enough when you are packing just clothing. this woman had a more difficult task of packing her husband into the case. she was caught trying to sneak her husband out of prison during a routine visit. they found him probe up in the fetal position. the woman has been arrested. that brings us to the close of today's broadcast. you can find constant updates on our website, and you can check out our facebook page. from all of us here at "bbc world news america," thank you for watching.

>> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. and union bank. >> union bank has put its global financial strength to work for a wide range of companies. what can we do for you? >> "bbc world news america" was presented by kcet los angeles.